Adjunct Instructor of Music, Piano/Keyboard and Oboe

Rachel Acuff is currently serving as adjunct instructor of piano and oboe at Maryville College and is also a long-time faculty member of the Suzuki Piano School of Knoxville.

She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Oboe Performance and a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She directed the Preparatory Piano Program at Maryville College from 1999-2006 and previously served in adjunct positions at Carson-Newman-College and Walters State Community College. She is a former member of the Maryville College-Community Orchestra and the Oak Ridge Symphony and also served as a staff coach/accompanist at the University of Tennessee for ten years.

Ms. Acuff received the Knoxville Music Teachers Association’s Teacher of the Year award in both 2001 and 2012 and was named the Tennessee Music Teachers Association’s Teacher of the Year in 2001. She is a six-time recipient of the Governor’s School of the Arts Outstanding Teacher Certificate.

Over twenty of her students have been named state TMTA winners in both woodwind and piano areas and four of her students have represented the state of Tennessee in the MTNA Regional Southern Division Competitions. Her students have performed as concerto soloists with several local community/youth orchestras and also as featured soloists in venues in the Minneapolis, Washington D.C. and Boston areas.  Several of her students have been selected to perform in master classes and concerts at the Suzuki Association of the Americas national conferences and have performed in Suzuki workshops and summer festivals throughout the country.

Ms. Acuff is an active member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Music Teachers National Association, National Federation of Music Clubs, American College of Musicians and the Blount County Keyboard Teachers Association.